Premier League outfit Arsenal will take on German club Bayern in the last 16 of Europe’s premier club competition this campaign.

The first leg of the tie will be played at the Allianz Arena in Munich on February 15, with the second leg taking place at the Emirates Stadium in London on March 7.

Former Arsenal forward Charlie Nicholas has backed the Gunners to progress to the quarter-finals.

“I understand people will say Bayern are favourites, but why?” Nicholas wrote on Skysports.com. “Have they got a much better team? No. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez would walk into their side. Manuel Neuer is the best 'keeper in the world but their defence isn't that good.

“Being away from home for the first leg allows us to be patient and counter-attack, which we're very good at with the pace of Sanchez and Walcott, so I think being away first makes this a 50/50.

“It's a tough draw but I would have feared Real Madrid more and been as concerned by Sevilla. This is the Champions League and we've seen in both competitions they are not the superstar team of two years ago, so I genuinely feel Arsenal can come through here.”

Arsenal are a better team this season than they were during the 2015-16 campaign. Given how the Gunners are playing at the moment, they should head into the tie against Bayern as favourites.

However, it cannot be denied that on paper the Bundesliga outfit are a much better team. There are some genuinely world-class footballers in Bayern’s squad, such as Manuel Neuer, Robert Lewandowski and Xabi Alonso.

Subhankar Mondal

A football journalist based in Wakefield, Subhankar Mondal has previously worked for Goal.com International and Skysports.com, and has had his sports articles published in The Guardian and The Observer. He has also been on the BBC in the past and his name once found its way to the pages of the World Soccer magazine. He was recently cited in a major Louis van Gaal biography.